No More Surprise
by HecateA
Summary: Narcissa is determined not to be caught off-guard by goodbyes again. Years of experience and those she is closest to have taught her well. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Does this feel a little bit overly/needlessly angsty? Yes: but the combination of plot bunny and playing pinata is a mighty one indeed. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Slytherin MC (x2); Bow Before the Blacks; Brush; Minerva's Migraine; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Loneliness); Tiny Terror; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **1510

* * *

**No More Surprises **

Her day started with a whole lot of yelling, and now Narcissa was trying to be as quiet as possible as she waited for someone to emerge from the parlour, where the grown-ups were having quite the discussion.

Bella emerged first, skirts flaring as she stormed out of the living room determinedly. She froze and dropped them when she saw Narcissa standing at the foot of the staircase, barefoot and in her nightgown.

"Cissy," Bellatrix said. "Cissy, you were sent to bed hours ago, love…"

"I need help," she managed to whisper. She held up the hairbrush, uselessly. "I don't know how to do my hair for sleeping."

"The same way you always do it, love," Bellatrix said, coming closer and cupping her cheek. Narcissa shook her head.

"Andromeda used to do it," Narcissa whispered. She looked up at Bellatrix and her sister's face was unreadable. Her eyes, however? They were mad with that anger Andromeda had once said could burn down the world. Then again, maybe the things that mattered about Andromeda were the things that she had not said, now that she had run away.

Narcissa swallowed hard and touched the end of her very loose, very messy braid.

"When you told me she was gone this morning I tried to keep last night's braid in, but I got it all messy," Narcissa said. It was telling about the chaos of the day that Andromeda's flight had distracted them all from Narcissa's disheveled hair—usually a massive faux-pas in this household.

"Braiding isn't so difficult, Cissy," Bellatrix promised. "I'll do your hair tonight so you can get some sleep, but I'll show you how to do it later, okay?"

"Okay," Narcissa said. Bellatrix held out her hand and took the brush from her, and then took her other hand.

"Come on; let's get you back upstairs before mother and father see you awake," Bellatrix said.

She walked her up the stairs and back into her bedroom. She sat Narcissa in front of the vanity and undid Andromeda's work from the night before, brushed out Narcissa's long blonde hair, and got to work braiding. Her braiding hurt more than Andromeda's did and the final product wasn't quite as solid or delicate. And of course, Bellatrix didn't sing as she did it. But Narcissa was still happy. She had spent hours after her curfew, agonizing about what to do about this. Having her sister close, if not both of them, helped her nerves untangle.

She finally worked up the courage to ask her question when Bellatrix was tying off the braid with a sky blue ribbon.

"Bella?" Narcissa asked. "Are you going to help me tomorrow too or is Andra going to be back?"

Bellatrix paused and then spun her chair around and slid down so that she was kneeling in front of Narcissa.

"Andromeda isn't your sister anymore," she said evenly. "She decided to leave us. She married a Muggle."

"A Muggle?" Narcissa echoed. "Why?"

"I don't know," Bellatrix said. "I could never imagine… but Andromeda chose to do that, instead of staying with us or with the family. She's gone now."

Narcissa' lip shook.

"How can she be gone if she didn't say goodbye?" Narcissa asked.

"She didn't want to," Bellatrix said just as steadily. "She decided to run away like a thief in the night. She didn't care about the consequences."

Narcissa was exhausted; it had been a long day, she had spent most of it trying to stay out of the way and pretend she didn't exist, and the debacle about her hair had kept her up hours later than usual.

"I didn't know people could just do that," she said. She knew that the tears were welling up in her eyes now.

"I know, I know," Bellatrix said, gathering her against her chest. She clung to her big sister. "But do you know what, Cissy? I will never do that to you."

"Promise?" Narcissa asked.

"Promise," Bellatrix repeated.

* * *

She clasped her hands to try and steady their shaking as the Aurors led her through the bowels of the ministerial buildings, through rooms she had never seen before and would most likely never see again. She tried to ignore the penetrating cold that hung around the air like an incoming tragedy. She didn't see the Dementors, but she was sure that these halls were absolutely riddled with them.

She shivered. She couldn't pretend they weren't getting to her—just as she couldn't discount the dark looks that the Aurors gave her as they passed. It occurred to her that her sister's case must be particularly touchy for them, since Bellatrix had gone after two of their own… Oh, Bellatrix. Narcissa had read everything _The Daily Prophet _had to say over and over again, and she still couldn't understand.

The Aurors stopped in front of a room, at last. They turned to her.

"You have five minutes," one of them said.

"Five?" Narcissa choked.

"Alice Longbottom had three minutes to hide her son before the Death Eaters broke into her home," the other snapped. "Did you want to breakeven?"

Narcissa recoiled.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

The other two Aurors exchanged glances.

"You have five minutes," the senior one repeated. "No touching the defendant, you may not give anything to the defendant, if the defendant tries to give you anything you may not take it, and there will be no discussion of the upcoming trial. If at any point the Aurors feel that you are breaking any of these rules or otherwise compromising the hearing, you will be removed from the room with no prior warning. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," Narcissa said quietly.

The two Aurors nodded and opened the door. One went ahead, calling to Bellatrix to announce who it was. The other waved Narcissa in first.

Bella was standing in the corner of her room and though the metal was tarnished, Narcissa was immediately hit by the chain keeping one of her feet tied down to the prison wall. She was wearing the prison robes of an Azkaban convict, and the rings under her eyes matched the darkness and unwellness that Narcissa associated with the place. Her hair needed to be washed, and the curls it tumbled down in had lost their organized chaos and hung haphazardly.

Messy. Bellatrix looked messy, a major faux-pas in their childhood home and a rare sight in their adulthoods too. But she smiled when she saw Narcissa.

"I so hoped it would be you who came," Bellatrix said. She opened her arm and it took everything in Narcissa not to rush forward and bury herself in her sister's arms.

"You did say we would always have a chance to say goodbye, you and I," Narcissa said, biting down on her lip as she looked around the stone room.

Bellatrix lowered her arms.

"Narcissa, believe me, I do not relish the consequences of what I did for a good cause," Bellatrix said.

"Enough," one of the Aurors snapped.

Bellatrix looked to them and practically _hissed, _like something feral_. _Narcissa felt something inside her shatter.

"A better cause than family?" Narcissa asked quietly. "Something better or more important than Draco's first Christmas, Yule Feasts, Sunday dinners, anniversary celebrations, evenings by the fire, birthdays after birthdays…"

"This was for family," Bellatrix said, looking hastily to the Aurors.

"Family didn't ask this of you, Bellatrix," Narcissa said quietly.

"Think of it as a different family," Bellatrix whispered.

_Of course, _Narcissa thought.

Of course there was always a family to choose other than her.

* * *

"Lucius," Narcissa whispered.

His hand stalled on the mask for a moment. She felt herself shaking.

"Lucius, you're going to go to him," Narcissa asked. He had winced and rolled up his sleeve in pain only minutes ago, and now she saw how full and dark the mark on his arm looked. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"I must," he said simply. He took her hand. "I will go for both of us. I will bring back news."

"What news could we possibly want?" Narcissa asked, voice small.

"A second chance," Lucius said. "That would be nice, wouldn't it? To make a better world for Draco?"

"I think Draco quite likes his world—and his family," Narcissa said. She should have said it louder, she should have drawn on years of pain and loss to make it more demanding. As it stood, her plea for abstinence fell on deaf ears.

Lucius kissed her cheek. "I will come back as soon as I can with word from the Dark Lord. Will you stay here?"

Narcissa swallowed hard once, but nodded.

Of course she would stay here, waiting for someone to come back for her.

"Lucius?" she asked just as he was about to swing out the door. "Goodbye."

"This isn't a goodbye, love," Lucius said. "I will be home so soon."

"Well, they never feel like goodbyes until they are," Narcissa whispered. She swallowed, petrified but convinced not to be caught off guard yet another time. Just in case. "Goodbye."


End file.
